For those of us who have already gone through the first edition of his tutorials, would anyone have any books they would add that are essential for learning Rails in depth?
FWIW, I also went through the first edition, and now I'm working through the 2nd edition... I'm really impressed with how much stuff has been added and updated. Really good stuff here.
I'm going through your tutorial at the moment and I think it's excellent. Now I'm considering buying the updated screencast. One question though. Is there any possibility for kindle friendly e-book?
Many Kindles can read PDFs, and the Rails Tutorial book is designed to look good on those. Eventually I may release a mobi format as well, but it's a pain to make, and I find that both mobi and ePub are rotten formats for technical books.
I decided to switch from php to rails a month ago, and your tutorial was enlightening.
You seem to have taken a great deal of time to make the walk-through crystal clear, and I really appreciated it. I felt like I understood every step of the way, with no questions left unanswered.
Big thanks from France!
Thanks for keeping this incredible resource current, Michael. The first edition of your book was what first got me into web development. I'm definitely looking forward to the updated edition!
I've worked through most of the 2nd edition PDF when it first came out though received an email this afternoon stating "I'd also like to note that the latest PDF incorporates lots of improvements (including some big ones) discovered in the course of making the screencasts."
Out of curiosity do you have a list of big improvements between the initial 2nd edition PDF and the most up to date release?
Really enjoyed the first edition (it was the first thing that got Rails to 'stick' after years of not-really-getting-it and it's my go-to resource for friends who ask about learning Rails); how different is the second edition? Will probably end up buying it anyway but is it a complete rewrite or just some updates?
I bought the Rails Tutorial book only to find out that there's a free online version and the 2nd edition well on its way. Totally my fault though, should've done more research :/. Otherwise, it's a great book and I'm sure the 2nd edition fixes the compatibility issues.
Does anyone know when the version of screencast on Safari Books will be updated to 2nd edition?
UPDATE: sorry I just saw it. It's called "Ruby on Rails LiveLessons (Sneak Peek Video Training), Second Edition". Hopefully they'll update to the final version soon.
We engineers do have an actual problem with Hollywood and the music industry,
but it’s not the one you probably assume. To be blunt (because there isn’t any
nice way to put this) we think Big Entertainment is largely run by liars and
thieves who systematically rip off the artists they claim to be protecting
with their DRM, then sue their own customers because they’re too stupid to
devise an honest way to make money.
I’m sure you don’t agree with this judgment, but you need to understand how
widespread it is among technologists in order to get why all those claims
about “piracy” and lost revenues find us so unsympathetic. It’s bad enough
that we feel like our Internet and our computers are under attack, but having
laws like SOPA/PIPA/ACTA pushed at us on behalf of a special-interest group we
consider no better than gangsters and dimwits makes it much worse.
Some of us think the gangsters’ behavior actually justifies piracy. Most of us
don’t agree that those two wrongs add up to a right, but I can tell you this:
if you make the technologists choose between the big-media gangsters and the
content pirates, effectively all of us will side with the content pirates as
the lesser of the two evils. Because maybe both sides are stealing on a vast
scale, but only one of them doesn’t want to screw with our Internet or cripple
our computers.
We’d really prefer to oppose both groups, though. Our sympathies in this mess
are with the artists being ripped off by both sides.
Note that the Rails Tutorial is neither part of Hollywood nor part of the music industry. It is distributed as DRM-free files that don't restrict your freedom in any way. When you make a purchase at railstutorial.org, the proceeds go directly to the "artist" (which in this case happens to be me).
As the author of the tutorial, I would of course rather you obtain the files legally. But if you do find an illegal copy, end up learning Rails, and get a high-paying job as a Rails developer, please tell your employer how you learned it. :-)
I don’t think the majority of people here condone piracy. It’s the practice of criminalizing people who don’t acquire stuff legally because they either can’t (e.g. the content not being available in their country) or won’t (because the distribution model puts the consumer in a unfavorable position) that rubs people the wrong way.
